Iran's unemployment down to 11.1%

Iran's unemployment rate in summer 2011 hit 11.1 percent, down 0.4 percent compared to the figures for spring, the head of Iran's Census and Statistics Bureau announced on Monday.Tehran Times quoted Adel Azar as saying that the latest figure on jobless rate in Iran indicated a narrow cut in comparison to the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21). Based on the announcement of the Statistics Center, the unemployment rate was 11.5 percent in the first three months of this (calendar) year. Some 1 million new jobs have been created in the first half of the current year. During the previous year, the nation's working population was 25 million, the report added. Iranian official had vowed earlier this year that the country would cut its unemployment rate to seven percent by the end of 2012 in line with the Fifth Socio-Economic Development Plan of Iran (2010-2015).